Saturday, April 28, 2018

I got an email the other day from Tiddly Inks announcing that they would be having a blog hop that anyone could participate in. I have several of their digital stamps in my collection so I figured why not play along??

The image I am using is called Mama's Fuchsias. Christy has a TON of gorgeous digital and clear stamps in her store. If you aren't familiar with Tiddly Inks, I suggest you check out the store!

I printed the stamp out onto Bristol smooth paper. I grabbed several colors of Zig Clean Color real brush markers, a waterbrush and got to coloring. No extra fancy coloring here. I layed down a little color and spread it out with the waterbrush. If I felt I had too much color I would wipe my brush on a paper towel. After the first layer was dry I did go back and add a little more color for a bit of shading. Once the main image was dry, I went around all of the edges with the English Lavender Zig marker and spread out the color as far as I could. I think it helps to pop the image off the page!

I set it aside and got to working on my background. I have been slowly building up my collection of Alcohol inks. I just love to sit down and play around to see what I can get! I chose three colors that coordinated with my colored flowers. Raspberry, Amethyst and Botanical. I just kept adding color and blending solution. Used a straw to blow the colors around a bit. Stared at it some more. Added more color. And so on until I was happy with the results. Once it was pretty dry I laid a piece of gold foil on top and rubbed over it. Pull it back slowly to see the little veins of gold!

Isn't it gorgeous??!! I almost hated to cut into it but it was too big for an A2 card. I cut it with a die from Pretty Pink Posh and attached it to the card base. The flowers I cut out with a die from Spellbinders and mounted it to the background with a layer of craft foam. For the final bit, I heat embossed the sentiment in gold onto a scrap of black cardstock and glued it in place. I did go over the sentiment with Wink of Stella to give it a little bit of sparkle! Here is the finished card!

Hello my friends! I've got another card to share with you that I made for the Love Your Pet blog hop. I wanted to remind you still have until midnight on April 29th to link up a card for the blog hop.

You can link your card up and find full details on the JessicaLynnOriginal blog HERE. There are prizes to be won AND donations are being made to Lucky Mutts Rescue for each card or project entered!

Now, for my card today. I used the only other image I hadn't used yet in Celine's Kittens. The two adorable kitties playing in the paper bag! Since I have already made one card with Copic markers and one card with distress inks, I needed to pick a different medium. Some times I have a hard time picking a medium. So many awesome ones to choose from! Colored pencils won out today.

I first stamped the image on a piece of teal patterned paper from the Basic Grey Spice Market pad. Then I stamped the image on a piece of Stampin Up Naturals Ivory cardstock. I went ahead and picked the rest of the patterned papers I wanted to use so I knew what colored pencils to pull out.

All the colors I used are from Prismacolor.

Bag accents 920 & 1006

Ears 927 & 1092

Eyes 920 & 1006

Big cat 941, 1082 & 1083

Little cat 1052, 1054 & 1056

Here's what the pieces looked like after I finished up the coloring.

The two larger pieces of patterned paper I cut down to 4 1/2" x 5 3/4". I stacked them together and cut them on the diagonal. I wanted to make sure the pieces would fit together perfectly. After I cut them, I glued them onto a piece of scrap copy paper. I needed them to stay put while I used the MFT Stamps Wonky Stitched rectangle die to cut out the papers.

I didn't have a piece of glitter cardstock quite large enough to span the diagonal across the card. I remembered that I had some gold glitter tape from The Ton Stamps. It was just the thing!

I added it to the paper and trimmed off the edges. I glued the patterned panel onto a teal piece of cardstock and then onto a white, A2 sized card base.

I pulled out one more piece of patterned cardstock from the Basic Grey paper pad. I cut it into a strip, used a mini scalloped and stitched edge die to add details to the top and bottom. I wanted even more detail so I put the strip into a floral embossing folder and ran it through my Cuttlebug. Attached it to the card panel and cut off the edges.

Back to the cat images. I fussy cut the cats out of the ivory cardstock and went around all of the edges with a black marker. Then I took some thin foam tape and adhered it to the back of the cat piece. I carefully lined it up with the cats on the bag and attached it. I did decide to use a fine tip black marker to go over the kitty whiskers. Colored pencils can obscure some of the stamp lines so you may have to go back over some of them.

Now I was down to the home stretch, a sentiment. I used a Hello die from MFT Stamps and cut it from the same natural ivory cardstock I used for the kitties. I found that the Peacock Feathers distress ink matched really well with my card. I sponged it on to the bottom portion of the sentiment and blended it for an ombre effect. I sprinkled a little bit of water on it and dabbed off with a paper towel. Once it was totally dry I added it to the card. One final step. I went over the sentiment with Shimmer Pico Embellisher to give it a little glitter and shine. There you have it!

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Howdy! I'm back with a second card to share for the Love Your Pet blog hop hosted by JessicaLynnOriginal stamps!

My first card I shared a few days ago was colored with realistic cat colors. Today I am going way outside the box!

I wanted something fun, bright and cheerful. I think this really fits the bill!

I did have to do a bit of measuring and planning to make sure I had the cat image from Celine's Kittens evenly spread out across the paper. I started by cutting a piece of Canson watercolor paper into a 3" x 6" strip. I used a pencil to section it off into 2x3" sections. I then wiped over the whole piece with an embossing buddy. Next I inked up the kitty with Versamark ink and stamped the image three times. After that, I sprinkled white embossing powder until I had all of the ink covered. I then used my heat embossing gun to melt the powder.

Once it cooled down I went back and erased all of my pencil lines. They would be visible through the distress inks I planned on using so I needed to remove them. So, nothing seems more cheerful to me than a rainbow! I pulled out six different distress inks that I thought would make a pretty rainbow. Candied Apple, Carved Pumpkin, Mustard Seed, Lucky Clover, Blueprint Sketch and Wilted Violet. I went over the watercolor paper with a light wash of clean water to start with then started added in swatches of color. I dried it with my heat gun and went back to add another swatch of color but concentrated it at the top of each color band for a little more depth. Dried again with the heat gun.

I masked off each section loosely with scrap paper and splattered the same color ink onto the same color section. Candied Apple onto Candied Apple and so on. And dried again. I then went back and added black splatters over the entire piece. Dried it one more time! At this point I set it down and gave it a hard look. I liked the overall affect but I felt the eyes looked weird with just the white. So I used a black sharpie to color in the pupil. I also darkened up the iris with each individual color to make them more prominent.

I trimmed the watercolor paper down just a bit because I didn't want my finished card to be longer than 6". I cut a narrow black panel and glued the watercolor piece on top. I then cut two narrow strips of thin, black striped paper from MFT Stamps and attached it to each side. I had previously searched through my rainbow colored papers and found the perfect piece of paper from Lawn Fawn's Really Rainbow paper pack It's so pretty! I also cut thin strips of this because I didn't want to waste any of the gorgeous paper that wouldn't be seen anyways!

Now the completed panel I was left with was 6" tall by 4 1/4" wide. I wanted to use Neenah 110lb cardstock for the base but of course it wasn't quite large enough, so I cut one panel 6 1/2" tall and one panel 6" tall. I scored the longer piece at the 1/2" inch mark, folded it over and glued the other panel to it on the inside. So it was butted up against the fold on the inside. Giving me the proper size card base! I glued my fun panel to the card base and called it almost done.

I found I had just enough room to add the Purr more sentiment from Celine's Kittens. I stamped it with Versamark ink onto a scrap piece of black cardstock. Sprinkled white embossing powder and melted it with the heat gun. Once it was dry, I added Wink of Stella over the top for shimmer! I cut it down to the right size, added foam tape and attached it to the card.

I stepped back for one final look. It needed just a little something more. Rainbow sequins! I believe these are actually the Studio Katio Crystal Rainbow Confetti sequins. I love them and they were just the perfect thing for the card. And whamo. Done!

Don't forget to play along with the Love Your Pet blog hop which you can find right HERE. This hop goes through April 29th!! You still have plenty of time to link up! Remember, there are prizes to be won AND they are making a donation for every card linked up!!

Sunday, April 22, 2018

Hidey ho crafty friends!! I have another Mother's Day themed card to share with you. This one uses another digital stamp from A&M Memories. *UPDATE* Shop is actually closing after Monday, April 23rd Angela is closing down her Etsy store so please go check out her selection! The stamp I used can be found HERE.

Isn't she just the sweetest?? This would be the perfect Mother's Day card for pet lovers or a pet mom!

I printed the digi out onto Canson watercolor paper. I then squished several different colors onto my craft mat. Fossilized Amber, Abandoned Coral, Mermaid Lagoon, Twisted Citron, Tattered Rose, Ground Espresso, Lucky Clover and Worn Lipstick. I first sprayed some water onto the inks, dipped my brush in clean water and then picked up the distress inks. I added the first layer to the dog and the girl, dried it with a heat gun and went back to add another layer. I find it easier to add my shading if I do it in layers. Once it was totally dry, I went all around the image with a watered down Hickory Smoke. I waited until it was dry and fussy cut it out.

Now on to the gorgeous background. I fell in love with the Tossed Floral background die from WPlus9. OMG!! It's just so pretty! I used several of the distress inks to color portions of the background. I tried to color the same shape with the same color. Gave it some sense of order without it being too much of a pattern. I set it aside to dry.

I cut out a piece of Narwahl Gray cardstock from Lawn Fawn with a Stitched Rectangle die from MFT Stamps. Now that I had this gorgeous floral background I had to figure out had to add a sentiment. One of my favorite things to do when I don't want to cover up a background is to use heavy vellum. I cut a band of the vellum, treated it with anti-static powder and stamped the sentiment with Versamark ink. I sprinkled on Liquid Platinum embossing powder and melted it with a heat gun.

I glued the floral background onto the gray cardstock. I then wrapped the vellum strip around the gray piece and glued both onto the white card base. I used foam tape on the back of the digi stamp and put it in place. As the final touch I glued on a few sparkling clear sequins.

Saturday, April 21, 2018

Hi gang! I know haven't posted for a bit. I think this whole Spring-but-it's-still-cold-and-snowy thing has had me in a funk. I have got to make my own spring I guess! But today I am participating in something extra special. It's the Love Your Pet Blog hop hosted by JessicaLynnOriginal. I'll post a link to the her blog where you can link up! See the picture below for details. We'd love for you to participate.

I am also thrilled because I get to take part as a guest designer this month!! Woohoo!!!

As a cat lover, I chose to work with Celine's Kittens which you can find here: Celine's Kittens

This set is SO adorable. Perfect for any cat lover. If you happen to have dog lovers in your life then you need to check out Flynne's Puppies or any of the many pet sets they have!

Anyways, back to my card. And here it is!

I randomly picked one of the main images and just got to crafting. Sometimes I don't have any sort of a plan and I just see what happens. I am very pleased with the end design!

I stamped the cat image onto Desert Storm Neenah cardstock using a copic friendly brown ink. I did it as a second generation stamping so that the outline was pretty light. To color the main portions of the cat I used E41, 43, 44 and 47. The eyes were colored with YG05, the nose with R32 and the inner ears with E01. The book cover was R32, 35 & 39, the pages were T0, 3 & 5 and the little fish was YR07. I think I used B02 for the tiny bubbles on the page. I did go over the whiskers with a very fine tip black marker because they got a bit lost.

At first I was going to just draw a little bit of a shadow under the book and cat to ground them but I think Sandy Allnock's YouTube videos told me I should try more. So I created blue carpet with B85, 97 & 99 and the wallpaper with G00 & 07. Eep. I'm always scared to freehand things with Copics but I think it turned out alright.

I cut it out using a square detail die and dug through my collection of colored cardstock for a matching blue. I came up with a retired color (Not Quite Navy) from Stampin Up! I mounted the cat piece but cut off the far right side as I planned on butting it up to the very edge of the card for a little something different.

I took another piece of Desert Storm cardstock and inked it up using a chevron stencil and the matching Not Quite Navy ink. I intentionally put it off center to so it looked like it was pointing right to the square with the cat!

I flicked on some white splatters with white paint and let it dry. While it was drying I went to work on the sentiment. I colored on the back of a piece of heavy vellum with B97. On the front I stamped my sentiment with Versamark ink and added white embossing powder. I then cut a banner edge. It didn't stand out quite enough so I cut a Night of Navy banner and a white banner. The white banner I went over it with Wink of Stella to add a little shimmer. I played around until I like they way they were layered and adhered them to the card. The cat image I popped up using foam tape.

For the final step I added Nuvo drops in white and navy. I did learn a little lesson. The large white dot was over an inked portion of the background. It sucked up some of the blue ink and is now a blue-ish white. Oopsie! I still think it looks fine but I will try to remember that in the future!

Now, for full details on the Love Your Pet blog hop and to link up a card please click HERE. There are prizes to be won AND they are making a donation for every card linked up!

I'll be back again in a few days with another card or two for more inspiration!

Sunday, April 15, 2018

Mother's Day is coming! Every year I say I'm going to get my cards made in advance. Each year I'm stressing out on the Saturday before trying to get a card finished. LOL. Not this year! I stumbled across some lovely Mother's Day themed stamps on Etsy. The one I'm using today is called Mother's Day Portrait by AandMMemoriesdesigns and can be found HERE. Angela was very kind and let me be on her Design Team!

I sized the stamp down to what I wanted and printed it out on watercolor paper. I wanted to try my hand at watercoloring the image. I have a set of the Daniel Smith watercolor sample dot sheets. I love having these so I can try out all of the colors without having to buy full tubes. That way I can figure out which colors should make it into my collection. I did forget to write down which ones I ended up using on the stamp. Oops. I do know I used French Ochre for the skin. That one I will be adding to my collection.

Once she was dry I went back and added a few shadows. Then I painted a very watered down blue on the inside of the curly frame. More drying time and then I added a very watered down gray to the outside of the frame. I set it aside to finish drying.

I wanted a watercolor background and picked out a few distress oxide ink colors that coordinated with the colors I used on the stamp. I squished worn lipstick, bundled sage and shaded lilac onto my craft mat. I spayed them with water and then pressed another piece of watercolor paper down onto them. I quickly dried them with the heat gun and pressed it down in different sections into the inks. I left it to air dry.

At this point the main image was dry and I used a Stitched Round Rectangle die from My Favorite Things to cut it out. For the watercolored background I ran it through my Big Shot with the Circles & Diamonds stitched pattern die from Lil' inker Designs. You can't see it very well in the picture but it adds a great touch in person. Then I cut the whole piece with a Stitched Rectangle die from My Favorite Things. They have some of my very favorite dies! I'm especially fond of stitched dies.

I adhered all the layers onto a pale lilac piece of cardstock and then all of that onto a white card base. At this point I was trying to figure out if or where I could add a sentiment. After much searching through my collection, I settled on a Mom die from SugarPea Designs. I cut it out of watercolor paper and inked it with shaded lilac distress oxide ink. I went over it a few times to give it an ombre look and glued it on to the card.

For the final touch I added just a little bit of Crystal Stickles. Ta da! All done AND plenty of time before Mother's Day. I won't be sweating bullets the Saturday before. Go me!

I encourage you to check out the full line of digital stamps (and planner accessories) available at the A & M Memories shop ---> A & M Memories